How my pre-season predictions are faring at the halfway stage, another raid on the Motherwell and continued impeccable away form!

By: Martyn | January 29th, 2009

After snaring Ross McCormack from Motherwell in the summer, the news that Chris Porter is now on the verge of joining us for £450k must really irk the Steelmen faithful! Keeping on the transfer front, it seems Willo Flood is in the midst of a tug-o’-war between Celtic and Dundee United. The ex-City firefly certainly makes up for his diminutive stature with some over-the-top aggression (think Curly from Of Mice and Men, sans the vaseline glove thing), but is prone to headless chicken syndrome. I haven’t seen him play for a year and a half as he’s been in the SPL on loan for that period, but suffice to say, Dave Jones and the management team clearly don’t think he’s improved so rapidly that we’re missing out. Therefore, the Champions League team is more than welcome to one of our reserve reserves. Even more so if they wanna chuck us some cash!

On to the side of the game that everyone seems less interested in these days (transfer news is everywhere, even, erm, at the top of this post), and Cardiff City were in action last night against a Coventry City side with highly decent home form. I didn’t attend the game (I elected to buy a ticket for the Charlton away game instead seeing as they look destined for League One!) and I didn’t catch it on the radio either becuse I was out. But from what I’ve heard and read, the 2-0 victory was more than deserved. That we brushed them aside with such consummate ease fills me with inexplicable joy! A goal each from McCormack and Bothroyd also means Porter will have to wait for his chance… The victory propelled us up to 4th place with a game in hand (Derby County at home) on everyone who sandwiches us in! TREBLES ALL ROUND!!

Right before the start of the campaign, I made a series of predictions. Right Here. I can’t believe I doubted us so much that I went for a dull 9th place finish: We may be 4th, but whereas the top 3 have lost 6 games each this season, the City have only had an L result on 4 occasions. I know it’s still (cliche alert) early days, but I’m willing to bet lots of stuff I don’t actually have or own on us DEFINITELY being in the play-off-zone come what (in mid-)May.

My Top 9 looked/looks (seeing as I shouldn’t fully analyse and back-slap/slap-face myself until the season concludes) like this:

1 Sheffield United
2 Wolves
3 Reading
4 Palace
5 Brum
6 Swansea
7 Ipswich
8 Derby
9 BLUEBIRDS

At the 28/29 game mark, the real top 9 is thus:

1 Wolves
2 Reading
3 Birmingham
4 Cardiff
5 Sheff Utd
6 Preston
7 QPR
8 Swansea
9 Burnley

As you can no doubt all tell, so far so bad (other than placing Wolves in the automatic promotion zone). Perhaps this just goes to show that football is as unpredictable as ever outside the Premier League! Either that or I’m not one to go down the bookies with. My prediction for Top Scorer however, Jason Scotland, is currently in 5th place with 13 (Kevin Doyle leads the way with 17). A dark horse, admittedly, but give me a break folks. It’s as close as I may get!

Elsewhere, my pre-season predictions are in italics with brackets next to them indicating – how wrong I am – the actual position they hold, and the current real-life occupiers of my guessed positions are in bold.

Premier League winner: Chelsea (2nd) – Manchester United

Premier League 2nd-6th: Manchester United (1st), Liverpool (3rd), Tottenham (13th), Arsenal (5th), Everton (6th) – Chelsea, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Arsenal, Everton.

Premier League relegated: Sunderland (12th), Hull City (10th), Stoke City (19th) – Middlesbrough, Stoke City, West Brom.

Premier League top scorer: I went for Yakubu (52nd), closely followed by Carlos Tevez (71st). Nicolas Anelka, leads the way.

Championship relegated: Doncaster (21st), Blackpool (15th), Barnsley (18th) – Derby, Southampton, Charlton

League One promoted: Huddersfield (10th), Leeds (7th), Northampton (13th) – Leicester, MK Dons and were the league to end now one of Peterborough, Scunthorpe, Milwall or Oldham.

League One relegated: Colchester (11th), Yeovil (18th), Walsall (15th), Hartlepool (14th) – Brighton, Hereford, Cheltenham, Crewe.

League One top scorer: I went for Glenn Murray (13th) with Lee Hughes (6th) giving him a run for his money. Rickie Lambert is the pace-setter.

League Two promoted: Darlington (4th), Lincoln City (11th), Shrewsbury (6th) and Chesterfield (13th) – Wycombe, Brentford, Bury, and if the league ended now one of Darlington, Dagenham & Redbridge, Shrewsbury or Gillingham.

League Two relegated: Accrington Stanley (18th) and Dagenham & Redbridge (5th) – Bournemouth and Luton. In my defence, I made these predictions before both teams in the relegation zone were given those hefty point deductions.

League Two top scorer: I went for Grant Holt (3rd). Paul Benson is letting others follow by his example.

BSP promoted: Burton Albion (1st) and Stevenage Borough (3rd) – Burton Albion and at the moment one of Histon, Stevenage, Torquay or Kidderminster.

BSP relegated: Altrincham (14th), Northwich (24th), Weymouth (13th), Barrow (18th) – Salisbury, Forest Green, Lewes, Northwich Victoria.

BSP top scorer: I plumped for Daniel McBreen (who has 4 goals and is somewhere waaaaay down the pecking order) – Steve Morison is top with 19 net-rippling strikes at present.

FA Cup winners: Manchester United – Still possible

Carling Cup winners: Newcastle United - Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur

UEFA Champions League winners: Real Madrid (after beating Internazionale in the final) – Still possible, providing the latter get past Man Utd to reach the quarters, and the former overcome Liverpool.

UEFA Cup winners: Liverpool – Erm, definitely not the Scousers! My revised prediction shall hereby be Standard Liege.

Italian champions: AC Milan – Internazionale

French champions: Bordeaux – Lyon

German champions: Bayern Munich – Hoffenheim

Spanish champions: Barcelona – Barcelona

So that’s that. Things really can only get better for me and my predictions! Next up for the City is a tricky home tie with Forest. We won the reverse fixture 1-0, but since then Colin Calderwood has been axed and Billy Davies has injected the team with some life. I’m gonna go for a 2-1 home win, and a continued assault on reaching those automatic promotion places. BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOBIRDS!

A p.s. of sorts – Good riddance to one of the worst refs Cardiff City has had in recent times (he even made the normally scary-calm Dave Jones the angriest he has ever been!)